Unwelcome
by bunnyluver225
Summary: Rachel is finally back in camp, after being gone for more than 5 months. But she's different now. She has a secret. Percy and his friends are determined to find out what happened to thier friend. But that will be dangerous, because she is someone completely different now. Someone who isn't Rachel. Someone who is Unwelcome. Read carefully... R&R please! Enjoy:D
1. The Oracle's Back In Camp

Percy's P.O.V

Rachel was finally back.

The group of campers crowded around the Big House was the proof. I pushed my way through the crowd, determined to see Rachel first.

She had been gone for almost 6 months, every one of ours friends were excited to finally see Rachel again.

Finally reaching the deck of the Big House, I climbed the porch, quickly. Even though the campers were crowded around it, nobody had bothered to go inside. The deck where Chiron and Mr. D hung out was empty.

The whole camp was preparing to meet their oracle again.

I wonder what Rachel had been doing, while she was on her little "expedition". Usually, even though the campers left on their quests, most of the campers iris messaged every once in a while. Sometimes to ask Chiron or somebody else for advice, sometimes just to see familiar faces.

But for some weird reasons I didn't know, Rachel hadn't contacted camp for the six months she had been gone.

Some of my friends: Annabeth, Nico, Thalia and I had even though about going on quest to see Rachel and if she was alright, but obviously, Mr. D had vetoed the idea. His exact words were,

"Peter Johnson, I can't let you and you stupid friends go on this quest. Not because I particularly care for your safety or anything like that, but because Chiron does. If it were up to me, I would turn you into grapes."

But now there was no reason to be turned into grapes, or to leave camp. I walked into the rec room. I was a little surprised when I saw that all my friends were already there.

Annabeth smiled when I walked in and I automatically made my way to where she was sitting.

Nico, Thalia and Grover were all standing and talking to Chiron, who looked slightly tense. Piper, Jason, Leo, Katie Gardner, and the Stoll brothers were also there. I sat next to Annabeth and grabbed her hand.

"Where's Rachel?" I asked, scanning the room for her familiar face. I couldn't see her fiery red hair anywhere. Annabeth, who had been smiling, now bit her lip.

Her gray eyes were stormy.

"Percy…" she mumbled. Chiron cleared his throat loudly. Everyone's attention was on Chiron now.

"It has come to my attention that you are all awaiting the arrival of our oracle, Rachel Dare." My friends all nodded. I stood up.

"Chiron, is Rachel here or not?" I asked, questioningly. Chiron looked at me and sighed.

"Young demigod, our oracle had arrived, but . . ." Thalia stood up, glaring at Chiron.

"Percy, Rachel is here, but apparently, she doesn't want to see us." The whole time she was talking, I could hear the sarcasm dripping from her voice. I felt confused and turned back to Chiron.

"Where is she?" I demanded. Chiron looked tense.

"Ms. Dare has asked to be left alone at the moment, Percy. Try to understand she feels overwhelmed." Chiron looked in my eyes and I saw them pleading me to leave.

There was something going on.

Thalia snorted.

"Overwhelmed by what? Her friends?" My friends stayed quiet.

I felt someone grab my hand.

Annabeth.

"Percy, I think we should give Rachel some time." she said softly. I could feel the tension in the room, almost physically.

"Okay. Sure." I said, finally. Chiron nodded at us and exited the room. Leo sighed dramatically.

"Phew! There goes the elephant of the room. Or should I say the centaur!" Piper shot him a glare. Thalia walked out of the rec room without another word. Leo got up and followed after her, but not before he winked at us.

"Ladies man gonna make his move." I grinned.

Leo's crush on Thalia was obviously getting bigger. The door closed, but not before I heard a thud and Leo's voice.

"Oww!" The tension was gone and we grinned at each other.

"I hope Rachel shows up at the campfire." said Piper. Katie spoke up.

"She will. I mean, she probably feels weird being gone for so long and now suddenly, things are probably different." My friends nodded.

I smiled at Katie.

"You're one wise demigod." I said. She winked at me.

"Just call me Yoda, young grasshopper." Travis snorted in the corner.

"Star Wars nerd, alert!" Katie glared at him.

It was so obvious they liked each other.

Katie walked out next, who had a cabin to check on. Nico left next, claiming he had something to do. The Stoll brothers left the rooms, right after wards. Soon there was just me and Annabeth.

"Want to go for a walk, seaweed brain?" she asked, holding my hand. I smiled and we left the rec room.

We walked past the campers and headed to the forest.

"You want to go the beach?" she guessed. I nodded. Cutting through the woods was the quickest route. Just before we reached the clearing in front of the beach, Annabeth stopped abruptly.

"Why did —" she quickly covered my mouth with her hand.

"Shhh!" she whispered urgently. I followed Annabeth, as she led me into towards the clearing.

We walked slowly and finally I saw what Annabeth had seen.

Rachel.

It was around seven now, and the sun was low in the sky. Rachel was standing by the water, her back to us. But her red hair was unmistakable.

She wore a long white dress. Rachel never wore dresses, so that's one of the reasons I didn't call out to her right away. The other reason was Annabeth's hand clamped over my mouth.

"She singing." whispered Annabeth into my ear. Against the loud waves, you could barely hear Rachel's voice. But it was her voice.

Suddenly as if she heard us, Rachel spun around. Annabeth's instincts were faster than mine, she managed to duck and pull me down, too.

"Let's go, seaweed brain!" she called as she turned around. I nodded. Annabeth turned and walked back to camp but I stayed for a minute longer.

Because I swear Rachel's eyes were green.

But when she had turned around, I swear they weren't.

In fact they were definitely not green.

They were just a bit golden.


	2. Loss Of The Party

Annabeth's P.O.V

I trust my boyfriend. Even though he seems insane at some times. I trust him. But I can't say I believed him when he ran up to me and told me that Rachel was Kronos.

I rolled my eyes.

"Percy, you're crazy!" I rolled my eyes and we walked through the forest.

"I know what I saw, Annabeth." he said, his tone filled with exasperation.

"It was probably a trick of the light." I reasoned as we walked.

"No. Her eyes were golden." We reached the cabin, and Percy led me to the Big House.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked as Percy pulled me into the Big House.

"Chiron!" called Percy.

Nobody replied.

"Percy." I said.

"CHIRON!" Percy began shouting. Finally, I turned Percy to face me.

"Seaweed brain! Chiron's not here." He rolled his eyes at me.

"I know that." I looked at him like he was crazy.

"There's nobody here." He whispered to me. At that moment I was seriously worried for my boyfriend's mental stability.

"So?" He looked at me, his face suggesting it was obvious. Percy gestured for me to follow him as he made his way to the staircase that led to the attic.

"What are you doing?" I asked him, quietly.

"Sneaking into Rachel's room." He whispered back. We climbed up to the attic, which had been cleared up, so Rachel could stay there. I looked around the room with a frown; which had a couple of suitcases, a bed, a dresser and a shelf filled with ancient books and other weird things.

"Percy! We can't just climb up here. We're going to get into trouble." I exclaimed. Percy grinned.

"What? Are you a chicken?" I glared at him, but it soon turned into a grin.

"You're such a seaweed brain." Percy smiled for a second before turning back to the room. He made his way to the bed where a handbag is sitting, half-opened.

I felt a tingle up my spine. Just as I sit with Percy on the bed, I heard a slam.

"The door!" I whispered urgently. Percy paused for a second then winked at me. I resisted the urge to smack him. Why was he winking, now?

"Just play along." Suddenly, Percy relaxed on the bed. We could both easily hear the footsteps coming up the staircase.

Stomp.

Stomp.

Stomp.

Stomp.

The attic door opened.

Rachel.

She wasn't wearing the dress, but now she wore her usual paint-splattered jeans and the camp T-shirt. The minute she saw us, her eyes widened.

"What are you guys doing here?" she demanded. I felt my throat dry up. But Percy spoke up.

"We wanted to see you! So we went downstairs, but you weren't there. So we thought you'd be up here." Rachel's eyes narrowed slightly, but then she smiled at us.

"We just came up here a second ago." Rachel hugged Percy, immediately.

"We missed you." he said to her.

"I missed you guys, too." I looked at her, and pointedly noticed her green eyes. Stupid seaweed brain, I thought. Then Rachel and I hugged, slightly awkwardly.

"Hey, Annabeth." she greeted me, smiling.

"Hey, Rachel." We talked casually, before Percy suggested we go to the campfire, which was about to start. I held my breath.

"Let's go." she agreed. We were about to leave the Big House when we ran into Nico. He smiled at Rachel. For, more than the first time, I thought Nico might like Rachel for more than a friend. I secretly felt happy, which made me feel ashamed; because I was worried Rachel might come and take Percy.

Nico and Thalia who were heading to the campfire, too, came with us. We walked past the cabins, when we saw the Stoll brothers.

"Hey, Rachel! Are you guys coming?" questioned Connor.

"To the campfire?" I asked. The brothers exchanged looks.

"No! The beach party." I looked at Percy. He shrugged back.

"Sure. Let's go." Following the Stoll brothers, we headed to the forest. It was getting dark.

"Is everyone going to be there?" asked Rachel.

"Nah, just the cool people." replied Travis with a wink. Rachel nodded with approval.

"Like Katie?" teased Percy with a grin.

Travis turned red and we cracked up. We walked quietly for a few minutes chuckling, the forest was oddly quiet. The silence suddenly felt deafening.

I felt goose bumps. I was cold, now. I looked behind us; feeling like someone was watching us. But all I saw was the feint lights for the cabins. In front of us, it was dark. But nobody else seemed to be worried.

Rachel was talking with Percy, Nico and Thalia. The Stoll brothers laughed along.

"Guys. Do you even know where you're going?" I asked, finally.

"Psshht. Yes." snorted Travis.

"Well, I don't see the clearing." I commented. Everyone paused, scanning the darkened forest.

"Gods, Travis!" exclaimed Connor.

"I swear…" muttered Travis, scratching his head.

"What? One minute you're thinking of Katie and next thing you know, you forget everything?" The blush was visible even with the darkness.

I bit my lip. I turned around to look behind us, but even the cabin lights weren't visible. Someone yelped.

"Rachel!" cried out Nico. I whirled around, and realized that Rachel was down lying on the ground.

"What the hell happened?" I demanded.

"She just fell." We all surrounded Rachel, and I realized unfortunately, none of us were Apollo campers.

"She's unconscious." reported Thalia. Everyone was silent. I finally realized that everyone's eyes were on me. Before I could say word, I heard a crunch.

The sound of twigs breaking.

I froze, gesturing for everyone else to do the same.

"Hello?" I called. No answer.

"It must have been my imagination." I lied. I made sure everyone knew I was lying. The sound of ragged breathing filled the forest. I felt my heart speed up. The darkness had completely enveloped us. I could barely see anybody.

I felt Percy's hand grip mine.

I began whispering the directions.

"Everyone listen carefully. When I say so, everybody run east." I pointed to the left.

"Travis, Connor, you guys carry Rachel, okay?" I barely saw several nods. Leaves began crunching. I closed my eyes. A loud twig snapped.

"Now." We sprinted. Everyone moved to the left, pushing through the branches. Percy was pulling me through and I could hear footsteps everywhere. I could hear everyone panting.

We finally entered the clearing.

I began breathing easily. The large fire came into view.

"What took you so long?" called out Piper. I looked over and saw them; Piper, Jason, Leo and Katie. We made our way over to the dunes.

"Long story." I responded, falling onto the sand with Percy. We sat easily for a few minutes, trying to catch our breath.

"Hey, guys? Where are they?" called out Jason.

"Who?" asked Nico, frowning.

"Well, the Stoll brothers." piped up Katie.

"They probably got lost." reasoned Leo. I glanced around.

"Is that it?" I asked. Percy spoke up.

"Rachel, too."

"She was coming?" asked Jason. I nodded simply.

"We have to go look for them." said Nico. As we all got up, we heard a loud crashing noise.

Connor burst through the forest. He practically collapsed.

"Come…trouble…hurt…danger!" he cried between gasps for air.

"What happened?" demanded Katie.

"And where's Travis?" added Thalia.

"Who's in trouble?"

After taking a deep breath, Connor finally spoke again.

"Rachel, she —" he was cut off by a loud noise.

Rachel's scream.


	3. Lost and Found Trouble

Percy's P.O.V

Before I could even think, my body was moving. I had gotten up and sprinted to the clearing. I could feel my friends behind me.

"We're going to have to split up." I explained quickly.

"Jason, Piper, Thalia and Katie you go with Connor and look for Travis. Everybody else come with me to find Rachel." The fire had died out, so it was dark again. I reached into my pocket and felt Riptide.

"We'll head east, you head west." I said, feeling everybody's eyes on me.

"What if we found Travis?" asked Jason. I thought for a second, when Annabeth spoke up.

"Signal some lightning." Jason nodded.

"What about your signal?" questioned Katie. I frowned, I couldn't think of any possible signal.

"I could set a branch of something on fire or something." suggested Leo nervously. I nodded.

"Perfect. So let's go." We quickly separated, my group heading east. As we walked through the branches, Leo spoke up.

"Do guys want me light a small fire, so we could see?" We agreed that it would probably be the easier to find Rachel that way. I held Riptide in his sword form. The light from the fire reflected on Riptide, making weird shadows around us.

When Nico spoke up, I practically jumped. He had been so quiet I had forgotten he was here.

"This is dangerous." He spoke, his voice hard. Just after he had spoken I heard a sigh.

"Did anyone of you just sigh?" I asked quietly. Annabeth and Nico shook their heads. I looked at Leo. He looked nervous and I could visible see the flame in his hand growing.

"Yeah, it was me." He muttered, looking behind me. I nodded, feeling relieved. We walked a while longer when we heard a cry.

"Rachel!" shouted Nico, looking around.

"C'mon." I said as I led them to where I had heard the sound. There was a small clearing, about five feet, both ways. The ground was torn up, and I saw the dirt had been pulled out, surrounded oddly by a large branches. When Nico spoke up, I shivered.

"It looks like a grave."

"It probably isn't." I reasoned, "Probably just some nymphs joking around." That seemed to satisfy Annabeth and Leo. But Nico didn't respond, instead he stared intently in the center of the dirt pile.

Nico got down on his knees, but before he could touch the dirt I looked up and saw a lightning flash.

"They must have found Travis." offered Annabeth, sheathing her knife.

"What do we do now?" asked Leo.

"We have to keep looking." I said, my tone determined. I felt Annabeth's hand on my shoulder.

"It's getting dark, Seaweed brain." I frowned; I didn't want to give up. I felt intense heat behind me and I whirled around. Leo had set one of the large branched on fire. He held it up and large fire rose above the highest tips of the forest.

"Why did you signal?" I demanded, stepping towards Leo. Leo looked at me and then at Nico who was staring at us.

"Nico said we should." I turned to Nico.

"What the hell, man?" I growled. Nico looked past me, his eyes distant.

"Nico!" I glared at him. I could feel my pulse picking up. What the hell was wrong with him? Why did he think it was okay to signal when we hadn't found Rachel?

"Percy, calm down." commanded Annabeth. There was a tense silence, while we all thought of our next move. There was a crashing noise. I turned, holding Riptide tightly. I was more than a little surprised when I saw Thalia emerge from the forest.

"Where's everybody else?" asked Annabeth. Just then, Piper followed after her with Connor. The collapsed nearby, breathing heavily.

"Where is he?" demanded Connor.

"Actually, we didn't find Rachel. Somehow there was a false signal." I explained trying to keep my tone even. Thalia looked at me like I had grown three horns.

"Of course, you didn't find Rachel, Jackson!" exclaimed Thalia, exasperation creeping up in her voice. I felt confused.

"What do you mean?" asked Leo. Piper stumbled onto her feet.

"And where's Jason and Katie?" I asked, feeling more than a little confused.

"Jackson, you couldn't have found Rachel." said Thalia, her electric blue eyes narrowed.

"Why?!" I cried out, feeling frustrated.

"Because we found her!" shouted back Thalia. For a second I was quiet.

"What?!"I cried. Piper spoke up, finally trying to explain.

"Percy, we found Rachel so we signaled, and then you signaled back so we assumed you found Travis." I nodded following along.

"Alright, so where is Rachel?"

"And Jason and Katie?" piped up Leo.

"We came to look for you and we sent Jason and Katie to take Rachel to camp. Jason carried her and he was feeling kind of drained so he went with Katie, because she knew the way to camp." answered Connor.

"That makes sense." I finally said. Connor spoke again, his voice sounding worried and disappointed.

"So you didn't find Travis?" I felt a sick feeling in my stomach. The answer was obvious.

"We should probably head back to camp; it's pretty dark." suggested Piper, I could feel some of her charm speak. Several nods came in response, but Connor was still silent.

"What are we going to tell Chiron?" asked Leo, frowning suddenly. We all paused to consider this.

"We can't just say we lost Travis mysteriously and that the oracle just happened to be unconscious." said Leo. Thalia looked like she was on the verge of spearing out Leo's eyes.

"Guys, seriously. We need to think." called out Piper, really putting effort into her charm speak. The whole group went silent and began thinking. Thalia spoke.

"It's getting late. We'll think of a story on the way."

"Yeah, we're only going to get in more trouble if we stay out past curfew." added Piper. I nodded, with approval. We turned to leave, making our way through the forest. Leo spoke up.

"Percy, you know I didn't really sigh back there. I just lied, or else my fire would have gotten out of control." I nodded, relieved we were leaving now, and the nervousness was slowly creeping back. I felt a tingle up my spine.

We had only walked about twenty feet when we heard Nico.

"I found something." he shouted loudly. We all froze. Nico was no longer visible, but we followed our trail back to the small clearing. Nico was bent over the so-called-grave.

"What?" asked Thalia, her eyebrows raised. Nico put his hand into the dirt and pulled out a piece of fabric. Leo leaned closer with his fire, so we could get a better view.

The fabric was a damp red colour, but I realized that it had once been originally orange.

A camp half-blood shirt.

Nico began picking up the dirt in handfuls, throwing it to the side. He continued digging desperately, while we stood to the sides watching with curiosity. I felt my stomach sink.

Nico had reached the end.

There was more fabric, lying red in the dirt. Nico was throwing the dirt away, crazily.

A few of my friends turned away. I heard somebody puke. A cry rang out.

I knew what it was before he had even dug it up.

Stained bloody red, it was already rotting.

The body of Travis Stoll.


End file.
